Moustaches I have loved
Hello,
Hope you’ve been enjoying the weather, or if not, at least keeping yourself cool.
We’ve just launched our Kickstarter#2 after missing out on our first campaign by £124 last month, something (pun alert) I have been kicking myself about for last few weeks.
If only I’d checked five minutes later when the extremely generous pledge to style Paton’s moustache arrived, I could have mustered up the rest by midnight, the cut off time. (I can’t donate myself as the person running the campaign).
I’ve been thinking about moustaches a lot since missing our target by such a small amount, particularly about my dad Michael who would have turned 90 at the end of this month. I think he would have been an ace moustache stylist having once sported a fine Paton-like tache.
If you’ve never met my dad, here’s a photo of him below with a Tom Selleck, so named after the actor (for those who weren’t around in the 1980s) who played Magnum P.I.
When I was at university, the photo arrived without note or letter although it was signed (perhaps he was worried I’d forget what he looked like). I remember proper belly laughing and the photo still cheers me up to this day when I’m feeling a bit sad. He told me he was semi-serious with the pose at the time and then came across it it many years later, and realised how awful it was.
A friend, Stuart, who noticed the photo in pride of place in the kitchen, recently suggested he may have been the true inspiration for Matt Berry’s character Toast in Toast of London. I think there’s a definite similarity. And I suppose they have something in common in that Michael was an actor with a contract with Ealing Studios, appearing in classics like Passport to Pimlico, Another Shore and the Boulting Brothers’ The Guinea Pig. He told us tales of working with the likes of Joan Sims (Carry On films) and Richard Attenborough among others.
He said it was brilliant fun working on films and though I’m a million miles away from creating for a big studio, I can see why he loved the process so much. Sadly, Michael developed a really bad stutter (on one occasion being shouted at by the director for the stage version of Peter Pan for re-writing the play) and had to leave acting behind, though he still dabbled in amateur dramatics when we were kids. I always thought it was a shame he never tried again as an actor and, perhaps, if he lived today he would have been given the psychological help he needed.
But enough of only ifs. Back to moustaches. They also feature in our short comedy Skulduggery when Paton visits Folkestone’s Fishing, Hair, Bone and Biscuit Museum to get answers about the theft of skulls.
The museum features some strange exhibits of hair belonging to famous Folkestonians including William Harvey, the esteemed inventor of blood; Noel Redding, drummer with the Jimi Hendrix Experience and an obscure but hirsute writer called Charles Dickens.
But perhaps the finest exhibit on show is the portrait of the inventor of time machines, HG Wells, which is understood to be made from his own locks. I personally love how the unknown artist has used his tie to create the appearance of one of his most famous works, The Invisible Man.
As you can see, HG Wells was a lover of the lip rug too, though it was perhaps more conservative than modern day examples.
Paton’s moustache is probably closest to the Hungarian in style in Skulduggery (which we are hoping to edit soon), though in The Beast of Romney Marsh, it’s more of a beardstache and even a little Fung Manchuy.
We’re about to start editing Skulduggery but in October we hope to film the next in the series, The Biscuit Poltergeist which gives Dhvel plenty of time to grow any number of styles; the handlebar, English, Dali, horsehoe, Zappa, imperial, pencil, half-pencil, walrus and even one called the lampshade. We are ruling out the Hitler for obvious reasons.
So my friends I’d love to hear if you have a favourite moustache shape and how you think Paton’s should look when faced with a poltergeist, and if you can spare any money, however little, please consider pledging for one of our rewards.
The details for the Kickstarter is here.
All the money goes to expenses and fees. None of us receive any money - we do it for the love of it.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend and manage to keep cool. Thank you for reading.
xxx